Rick Riordan Announces New Series Titled THE TRIALS OF APOLLO Set In Percy Jackson’s World

Rick Riordan jumps back into Greek mythology with The Trials of Apollo

During The Sword of Summer Tour, Rick Riordan announced a brand new series set in the world of Percy Jackson. The series titled The Trials of Apollowill be a five book series following the god Apollo.

Here’s what The Trials of Apollo is about:

The series will be about how Apollo has been turned into a human because Zeus is angry with him. He becomes a 16-year-old mortal boy with absolutely no powers. He’ll wind up in New York City, landing in a dumpster, no less.

He’s got lots of enemies and only a few friends — friends who spend their time at Camp Half-Blood. He’ll need their help to survive the mortal world and, hopefully, regain his godly powers.

And while it’s certainly extremely exciting to know we’ll be going back to the Greek gods, it’s even more exciting that we’ll be meeting Percy and the whole gang again. In fact, we will find out what happens after The Blood of Olympus, seeing everyone at one point or another.

Riordan also announced that with Apollo being the god of poetry, all chapter titles will be in the form of a bad haiku.

The first book in The Trials of Apollo, titled The Hidden Oracle come outMay 3, 2016. And we’ll get our first look at the series in Demigods & Magicians, the collection short stories featuring Percy, Anabeth, Sadie, and Carter, which comes out April 5, 2016.

Who’s excited for this new series?

About Author

Leslie was born and raised in Southern California. She can be obsessive over her favorite books, TV shows, and movies. Her love of reading came at a very young age; you will never see her go anywhere without a book to read. Apart from that, she loves nothing more than her five dogs (Bella, Rocky, Finnick, Lizzie, and Sid).

120 Comments

Don’t quite writing Rick Riordan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love your books!!!!!!! Are the characters real? If they are tell Percy to come to my house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Write something about Hindu mythology!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or since Piper’s dad tells story about Native American mythology write about the Native American gods or the Aztec gods or the Mayan gods!!! Here’s a idea two kids who are siblings like the Kanes move to Mexico {the Aztec or Mayan gods} you choose which.

I love the series with Percy Jackson in it I love all the couples in them this is the greatest news I have had since I finished the series besides The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard can’t wait to finish the Kane Chricles so I can read it. CAN’T WAIT TO READ THIS SERIES THATS HOW AWESOME PERCY IS.

Yas! I’m trying to find Will and Nico fan fictions, but they’re all about him dating girls. Like no. They need to accept Nico is gay, which I LOVE how he is. I really hope that they will have Nico and Will in it a lot.

If we’re gonna do a brag-a-thon then I would like to say I finished Magnus Chase in the equivalent of half a day, would have probably actually been half a day if A. It hadn’t been Christmas (have to visit family, can’t really skip that on Christmas), B. I had gotten it first thing in the morning instead of at ten (as the ni wouldn’t have had to stop for lunch) and C. I hadn’t been in a caravan in the middle of nowhere (kinda makes it hard to read…) So there!

When I heard about this, I shouted hallelujah at the top of my lungs. YES! We get another Greek mythology series from Rick Riorden! Now we can get a follow up on everything, hear about Leo’s grand re-entrance, and I can hopefully see my favorite couple get together, Will Solace and Nico di Angelo. The possibilities! I’m off to mark May 3rd on my calendars now . . . .

I just wish we’d get some development for the Titaness. After all Rhea doesn’t even show up. The only Grandparent Percy has that isn’t dead/has tried to kill him. I’d like to see her. But maybe Apollo will interact with his Grandma. Ah well Maybe its for the best. I mean Rick already destroyed my head cannon for Freya.

Oh yea. definitely agree with it. Percy became a sore loser in Blood of Olympus, with JAson saving him under water. UNBELIEVABLE! Anyway, looking forward for this new installments. Hopefully, it will be as great as his other novels.

WHAT!!! BLOOD OF OLYMPUS IS AWESOME AND SO IS THE WHOLE SERIES AND THE ORIGINAL PERCY JACKSON. AWESOMENESS I LOVE THESE BOOKS I LITERALLY DIED ONCE I FINISHED THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS AND THEN THE HEROS OF OLYMPUS AND THEN THE KANE’S AND THE DEMIGOD FILES AND MORE OF THOSE. ME LOVE THESE SERIES. CAN’T WAIT TO BUY THE NEW ONES. 😍😍😍😍😍

So excited! Like I’ve been saying, I’ll be reading the series while going to college. Who knows? I’ll probably be spending time reading up on the Percy Jackson world then writing a ten-page essay. Can’t wait to be back in the Greek world, even though I love the idea of Rick Riordan exploring into different mythological worlds. Percy Jackson and everything a part of it is my world. Too bad no other generation has a Rick Riordan like ours does.

Same. The second I read “we will find out what happens after Blood Of Olympus” I legit stopped reading clutched my heart and made weird awkward hyperventilating whale sounds. I SWEAR MY HEART LITERALLY HURTS RIGHT NOW MAY 3 2016 WHY NOOO I CANT WAIT THAT LONG

THAT IS TOTALLY WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN.OH MY GOOODS.i knew there would be another serie when rick weote that reyna would never fall for a demigod and also when he didn t write about leo and calypso coming back to the camp…and there’s also still so much to know about jason and other charachters.i hope there would be a fight between percy and annabeth otherwise percabeth would appear as boring.i mean that if rick dosen t forget about them.and i m totally sure that by the end apollo will choose to stay mortal because of his love to reyna.this serie is going to be so awesome

OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME I JUST FOUND OUT AND OH MY GOSH THANK THE GODS I HAVE BEEN WAITIN FOR ANOTHER PJ BOOKA ND CANT WAIT TO REVISIT HIM AND EVERYONE FROM PJO LIKE YAAAAAYYYY I AM SO HAPPY I LOVE YOU RICK YOU KIST MADE MY UPCOMING BORING YEAR OF 8TH GRADE BEARABLE! THANK THE GODS! THAT MEANS YOU POSIDEON

I’m probably going to be berated for this, but I’m actually kind of disappointed. I mean, it’ll be cool to see what happened after Blood of Olympus, but I DON’T want a five-book series about Apollo. If this was a single book, I would be excited beyond words, but giving Apollo of all characters a five-book series just sounds kind of…bloated, maybe. And you just KNOW that by the end of the series he will have turned into a humble (gods forbid COMPASSIONATE) character.

What I would be excited for is a super-crossover series set AFTER Magnus Chase. The Demigods and Magicians collection was awesome, don’t get me wrong, but there’s so much more they could have done. It would be cool if somehow the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians team up with the einherjar and valkyries to locate other mythologies so that they’ll know where they are if anything should go wrong. If I was a demigod or magician or undead super-soldier I wouldn’t be saying “Hey, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Vikings. That’s cool, let’s just ignore each other until another apocalypse begins” I’d be saying, “That’s great and all but what about the Hindu, Aboriginal, Native American, Japanese, Chinese, German, English, Judeo-Christian, et cetera guys? We should probably check in and make sure they’re not creating doomsday devices and gathering armies to destroy the world.”

But APOLLO?! I like that Rick’s stopped doing the “history repeats itself” and “ancient prophecy of Armageddon” cliches but he’s GOT to realize this is a bad idea. Besides, there are so many things that he could do to expand the Mythoverse OTHER than reexploring a mythology we’ve already seen for ten books. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE his Greco-Roman books, but there are so many other mythologies out there, and he’s running kind of low on Greek and Roman baddies.

Anyway, that’s just my two cents. Maybe it’ll be good, but I will remain a skeptic until may.

Hmm interesting. I think Apollo is a well-developed character, and I’m intrigued to see him in the form of a mortal 16-year-old. If you think about it, he may not be all that humble afterwards…remember Dionysus, after being banished to Camp Half Blood for the second time? He was no less arrogant and godly. One thing I’d like to point out, is how the groups of characters that meet each other…actually met. The Romans copied the majority of their culture off of the Greeks, and became enemies for the short rest of Ancient Greece’s life. Later, the Romans and the Egyptians met. Remember Cleopatra? It will be interesting to have the Greeks as a part of that, for sure. Another thing to keep in mind is the popularity. Roman, Greek, and Egyptian mythology is the most popular, so the rest of that mythology can go out of the window for this. It’s a certain way of writing, so the fact that only that major mythologies are used is okay. I hope by saying that, I don’t offend anyone.

Now I have a question for you, ISSACTHEWRITER. If you don’t mind my putting this bluntly… what’s your problem with Apollo? I’m not trying to be rude. I’m actually curious as to what you have to say.

I personally am SUPER EXCITED at the prospect of another series. The biggest thing about this is that you practically get to grow up with Percy and all the others. Part of it is that they’re demigods…they could easily have some of the same doubts as Issac, here. ^^^ I hope Rick addresses this. (HINT HINT)

I don’t have a problem with Apollo, I just don’t think he’s the best choice for Rick to write a series about. I don’t think ANY of the gods are. The whole point is that they’re one big dysfunctional family that are always killing and castrating each other, and Apollo is the spoiled jerk of the mix. Through all of the books that he’s been in he’s been the pompous brat, and while I get what you’re saying about Dionysus, I personally think that since there’s going to be a whole series about him, Apollo’s going to have FURTHER character development, meaning that either he’s going to be more of a brat or he’s going to be humbled by his lack of power and end up being a compassionate character. People don’t want to read a five-book series where the character remains the same, especially not if he’s a brat. I really don’t think that Rick is going to write an entire series and not fit a moral into it, like how even the most pompous godly jerk can become a good person, and while that is a good moral, and would make a fine story, I think Apollo is much better how he is: he’s the freaking god of the sun, archery, and music, he’s supposed to be a brat.

Like you said, his character HAS developed a lot since the Titan’s Curse, but he’s still not supposed to be a human character. Even the characters’ parents aren’t, technically speaking, compassionate and I would never call any of the humble, not even Hermes or Hephaestus. They’re larger than life personalities, and more often than not they’re the demigods’ problem, even when they’re not banned from communicating with their children or having trouble with multiple personalities.

As for what you said about how other mythologies can wait, I just don’t think that’s true. We’ve seen Greek and Egyptian mythologies, and now we’re getting Norse mythology. There are thousands of other equally compelling stories out there and just because the “Big Three” are more popular is no excuse to ignore the rest of them.

I will admit I got a little worked up when I first saw this, but I’m still skeptical that it will be a good series. When you compare it to “A young demigod must fulfill his destiny and save the world from the Titan of Time,” “Seven demigods must put their differences aside in order to fight the evil Mother of Earth,” and “A brother and sister must stop the apocalypse and learn the importance of family,” this just seems really lackluster.

“A stuck-up brat rock star/archer/haiku god is grounded by his dad and forced to realize how he’s screwed things up.” To be very blunt, all I see right here is: Apollo is awesome as a jerk that the demigods have to deal with every so often + people don’t want to read twenty-five hundred pages (if he holds to his standard book length) about a jerk = by the end of book five Apollo will no longer be the awesome jerk that we know and love.

I will buy the Hidden Oracle the day it comes out, and depending on what I think of it, I may or may not buy book two. I grew up on Percy, and it is entirely possible that I will love the Trials of Apollo, but I don’t think it will be as good as any of Rick’s other stories.

Actually, while of course it’s likely to have character development (side effect of being human is that you’re no longer unchanging), I think it’s also a really good chance to see how, in this cosmology, things are for the gods. There are a few hints that, as gods, they don’t have much in the way of free will — I’m curious to find out for sure.

And I’m not sure I’d put in Apollo as the jerk of the bunch (I’d nominate Ares). He’s full of himself, but he’s also the most human of them already, in a lot of ways. Unlike most of the Olympians, he and Artemis seem to respect each other as actual family, instead of as rivals, which is a start toward being different.

I never really thought about the relationship with Artemis, but I see what you mean. When I said he was the jerk of the bunch, I meant it in that he’s spoiled and arrogant. You’re right about Ares, though I would still put Apollo pretty high on the jerk list. I still think the gods shouldn’t be treated like human characters, and I don’t think they should change much, but I get your point. Also, the more I think about it, Thoth said that he knew Hermes and in Sword of Summer it was mentioned that Thor held a grudge against Jesus, so it’s possible that this could be a crossover of sorts, and it will be interesting to have a look at the lives of the gods. Maybe, despite Chiron’s opinion, we shall “concern ourselves with the metaphysical.” I still don’t think humanizing a God is a good idea, as it defeats the whole purpose of a God, but I do think you’ve got me beat on the Apollo part. I still don’t see how it merits five whole books, especially since there aren’t anymore apocalypse prophecies from the established mythologies, and I don’t know how much he can stretch the whole godly biology part.

I think I have been convinced (almost) that this could be pretty good, but I’m still concerned. You, my friend, could be a lawyer.

I wonder what the main story will be. I hope it’s not one big tour de force, a that just doesn’t fit Rick. Maybe Setne could somehow escape from the snowglobe and start wreaking havoc, but this time not on a measly short story scale. Maybe he could briefly destroy the mist, so the group has to fight in a way so that mortals don’t see any swords or spells or monsters. Do you have any ideas?

I agree with everything you said about the gods being brats. Completely true. They are larger than life, or at least they think so. I have the feeling the plot line will develop more as the series continues (well, that should be a given), which may add to the “awesome jerk” aspect of his character. But I think not. Wren has a point about “perspective of the gods”, but they’re all a bunch of jerks. No god truly respects their family. Demigods seem more “accidental”, from silly infatuated affairs. They are sort of one big family. Thinking about it for only a few seconds, I made the simple observation that Persephone is Hades’ niece. In America, the general population find the idea of inbreeding revolting, but it still happens in other countries. Just an observation, nothing relevant.

It truly would be interesting to read about other mythologies. I think that’s a great idea, but as a writer myself, I’d be afraid to miss someone important and offend people. There’s so many myths and gods/goddesses from every corner of the world. However, I feel it important to note that Greek mythology was what drew me into the series in the first place. If there were other mythologies involved in the beginning, I’d have been overwhelmed and probably wouldn’t have picked up that first book, when I was the same age as Percy was in the beginning and needed a character to relate to. One reason I love reading is because whenever you feel like your life is horrible, you can read about a character and say, “At least I’m not in THAT situation.” I needed someone like that, and that series made me a happier person.

Likewise, I’m skeptical of all this, but I’m happy to have a chance to delve into the future of these characters. I’ll give the first book a try and if I don’t like it, there’s other books out there. We can cross our fingers and hope for the best.

You realize that it will probably cover Etruscan mythology, the third aspect of Classical Mythology alongside Greek and Roman, right? Which, in that, is actually a really good thing, departing from the well-known myths that he’s been covering so far and bringing light to a mythology that’s been largely overlooked.

Of, course, if Etruscan mythology isn’t touched on at all, then we will all be justified in being disappointed. But, considering that Reyna’s mother came from an Etruscan goddess and the likelihood that Reyna will play a large role in this one, I’d say it’s a pretty good bet.

That’s a good point (sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner). Etruscan mythology is really interesting. I just recently considered something else. It seems that all of the gods from different mythologies seem to know each other: Thoth mentioned having met Hermes, it was referenced that Thor held a grudge against Jesus, stuff like that. Maybe having a series about the gods is going to be a good way to expand the Mythoverse. Also, this series could be a crossover with Kane and Magnus, because we’re assuming that it takes place after Sword of Summer, at which point Percy, Annabeth, Carter, and Sadie all know about each other, and Annabeth and Magnus have told each other their stories. Also, I think the katobleps that they faced in Venice are from African mythology, but I’m not quite sure.

It would be interesting, also, if Piper was incorporated into the story, especially if he’s going to use the fact that the main character is a god to introduce more mythologies (I really hope that he does). If Piper turns out to be the descendant of Native American gods, imagine all of the stories that could be told.

I’ve actually been reading up on some Etruscan mythology since my comment and it does seem that it would fit. The Etruscans were heavily into prophecy and soothsaying, believing the gods were directly involved in everyday life.

It seems to fit very well with the situation of things as they were left off, and the title “The Hidden Oracle.” Most likely, Apollo (or maybe I should say Aplu) will have to resort to the old Etruscan ways in order to bring prophecies back.

OMG what if Hera gets cursed and falls in love with a mortal man!!! Then Heras daughter/son would totally turn this story around, and there wouldn’t be room for a NEW QUEST!!! Or maybe another great prophecy!!!!🔯😜🤗

It’s most likely several fanfics, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s the most logical outcome of the events in the Parthenon, and it doesn’t exactly take an oracle to see that it was the intended outcome. I thought we might run across mortal!Apollo in Magnus Chase, but I’m glad he’s got his own series,

Yes totally! And what about Percabeth?! I seriously wanna know what’s going on with them. But to be honest, I think this whole series might be focusing on Will and Nico. I respect both of them as characters (I honestly love Nico), but I cannot get enough Percy and Annabeth. I can never get enough of them

I am soo happy about Rick’s decision of making another series on Greek mythology. Although rick did NOT leave us in a cliffhanger at the end of Blood of Olympus ( I seriously wanna argue with some of my fellow book readers because it’s true!!!), he is still making another series in a way that we can get to meet our old characters again, third POV style! Sault to you rick. Absolutely cannot wait for this adventure!